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⛪︎ 'Jake, you get wise. You get to Church!' Lit Students NEED to know the Bible
Published 9 months ago • 5 min read
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Cultural Capital for Literature Students: The Book of Genesis
(Don’t worry - the purpose of this post isn’t to convert you, but to raise your grades.)
Have you ever dreamed about appearing on 'Desert Island Discs’?
You know, that radio show where a celebrity is ‘marooned’, and asked to pick eight songs they would take with them. Every so often I change my mental list to add a new track that’s become important to me for some reason.
Most ‘castaways’ remember that you can choose just one luxury for your stay, but what many people overlook is that you get two books, too: Shakespeare’s First Folio, and a copy of the Bible. Why? Because they are part of our shared ‘cultural capital’.
Cultural Capital?
I'm sorry, Jake, I don't speak Tok-Tik
Essentially we might think of ‘cultural capital’ as a type of ‘knowledge asset’ which helps us navigate our way through society, find like-minded people, and communicate with people on their level. I’m sure you know how often we use words or phrases that Shakespeare first coined.
A more modern example for you: at the time of writing, it might be useful for teachers to know a bit about Tik-Tok, Fortnite, or Taylor Swift!
For students of literature, the Bible is the ultimate cultural capital.
Why? Regardless of our own religious beliefs, most Western Literature written (at least) up until the beginning of the 20th century is based on the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Authors, almost exclusively Christian, were writing for Christian readers. As a result, poetry, drama, and prose is littered with religious imagery and references. Knowing the Bible isn’t just useful for helping generate our ideas and textual analyses (AOs1 and 2), but also for that elusive monster, context (AO3). It’s worth repeating the words of the Assessment Objective for you, with my highlighting:
AO3: demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the context in which literary texts are written and received.[2]
(note - I colour code AOs in every resource I make, and AO3 is green - get used to it!)
Let’s sum up: the Bible is massively significant and influential in the writing of many of the texts you are studying, and in the minds of the audiences who have received those texts, sometimes over periods of hundreds of years.
Key techniques to look for are the ways in which your authors use the Bible to create metaphor, allusion and other imagery to symbolise or imply emotions, characteristics or concepts.
OK, I’m convinced, but hey, the Bible is huge …
You want me to read BOTH of these?
True! The Bible weighs in at about 783,000 words.[3] Shakespeare’s First Folio weighs in at 836,000, so our Desert Island Discs celebrities would have a LOT of reading material.[4]
I recommend you get one of the New Testament gospels (Matthew, Mark, or Luke) under your belt, but for this piece I want to focus on the big one …
The Book of Genesis
Simply, Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament, which Christians share with Jews. It covers the period from the creation of the world to the death of Joseph (yes, of technicolor dreamboat fame). Here are a few highlights for you, and pointers to where you can connect the stories to your English Literature studies.
The Garden of Eden, Temptation, and the Fall of Man
'It's one of your five-a-day', the serpent hissed
Whenever I encounter a garden in English Literature, I always stop and think about Eden. It’s a place of peace, harmony, and perhaps most of all innocence. Adam and Eve lived blissfully until (at Satan’s tempting in he form of a snake) they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge.
Their punishments included expulsion from Eden, the pain of childbirth (for Eve), and that they would have to work, as farmers, to eat. A small but important side note is that Eve was told that Adam would rule over her - exploited to the full by men across history, obviously.
Some Relevant A Level Texts: The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra, Hamlet, Maud (Tennyson), Wide Sargasso Sea (Rhys), Dr Faustus, Edward II, Frankenstein, Paradise Lost, Nineteen Eighty-Four, A Streetcar Named Desire, Goblin Market (Rossetti), On Chesil Beach (McEwan). Anything with forbidden knowledge or secrets, loss of innocence, or implying the snake / serpent is evil. Any text which features an overtly sexual female: the Tree of Knowledge is widely thought to be a metaphor for sex.
After Eden, Adam and Eve had a number of children.
Their sons Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd, both made offerings of their produce to God, who preferred Abel’s.
In a fit of jealousy, Cain took his brother to a private place and murdered him. God, being omniscient, saw what happened and cursed Cain. You might have heard of the ‘mark of Cain’ - it was placed on Cain to identify him, and prevent anyone murdering him.
He had to live with his guilt for a long, long time.
Some Relevant A Level Texts: Hamlet, Richard III, Othello, East of Eden (Steinbeck), A Streetcar Named Desire, Maud (Tennyson). Anything with jealousy between peers and/or murder, and/or siblings.
Noah, the Ark, and the Great Flood
Noah! You left a unicorn behind!
The Old Testament God is unforgiving (see above), and, believing that humanity had become wicked and spoiled his creation, decided to press the ultimate reset button.
Only Noah and his family deserved sparing, so Noah was warned to build a huge wooden ship to escape the flood.
At God’s order, despite being mocked as a madman, Noah built the ship and stocked it with two of each animal before the apocalyptic event arrived. After 40 days of rain, the dove was launched to try and find land, returning with an olive branch as as sign of peace. Humanity made a fresh start.
Some Relevant A Level Texts: Jane Eyre, Oryx and Crake (and the rest of Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy) any text featuring an apocalypse, especially where people warned of it beforehand.
Other useful Genesis content
The Handmaid - Yup, it’s in here - the patriarchal desperation for an heir leads Abram/Abraham to sleep with his wife’s servant. The handmaid appears several times after this, usually in terms of keeping the tribe fertile. Significance: Not only to Atwood readers, but to anyone considering how far back the insatiable urge for an heir, especially a male one, goes. Budding Marxist critics, and Feminists, think this through …
The Tower of Babel is a story about hubris (excessive pride) and, like Eden, the desire for forbidden knowledge, or attempts to subvert The Great Chain of Being (ie social hierarchy).
Abel Guerrero:I began teaching in 2013, but decided to leave the classroom at the end of 2024 to focus on tuition, courses, and resources. My interests and specialisations include Shakespeare, Poetry, Victorian Literature, and Science Fiction / Dystopia. I'm a rubbish gardener, but want to grow chillies like a boss ... 🌶️
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References / Further Reading
[1] The Blues Brothers (dir. John Landis, 1980)
[2] Assessment Objectives are set by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)
